I mean that quite literally, they just started brewing last Friday.

Before then the trio of Jake Johnson, Jeff Moriarty and George Kellerman have been brewing in a state of flux, longing for the day when they wouldn’t have to call Jeff’s basement “home”.

(Note: Jake and George never actually said they lived in Jeff’s basement, but they never said they didn’t, so…)

Electrical engineers by trade and homebrewers by choice, they decided to quit fooling themselves and make a living doing what they truly enjoyed – making and sharing beer.  Their search for a home led them to the Rossmoor Commons in Saint Paul where they could A) take advantage of the same water chemistry they had used to develop their recipes and B) join an already-popular cast of commercial tenants in their building Robert Street, between 9th and 10th, including Sawatdee, Keys Cafe and Black Sheep Coal-Fired Pizza.

It was January, when they secured their spot and after a few months’ hard work they’re almost ready to open. The first beer out of the gate will be a Kölsch to be joined by others, including a sweet stout, an IPA and the most intriguing one to me – a honey-chamomile wheat.  I say that style is begging for a sleepytime-themed name, but that would probably angrily awaken the Celestial Seasonings bear, and we should all know better than to mess with a well-heeled bear that is fiercely protective of its copyrights.

The transformation into brewers has occurred, but it’s easy to see they haven’t lost their engineering roots entirely. Their brand images are laden with circuitry and even their name ‘Tin Whiskers’ refers to an anomaly on a circuit board resulting from a soldering failure that will in turn cause a short circuit…or two.

So the whole business is ready to come to life, even their robot logo, in a sense. The mural as you enter their taproom is complete and robot has now been given a face. It has no name but is not short on personality; everyone seems to find elements of robots they love within its features.

If you’d like to see the building, come by during the Saint Paul Art Crawl this Saturday the 26th from 2:00 to 5:00, The beers aren’t ready yet, but the guys will welcome you with a beer-themed art exhibit and give you a peek at their new space.

Stay tuned for an announcement of their official opening.

Tin Whiskers Brewing Co., 125 E. 9th Street, Ste. 127., St. Paul, MN 55101